JSE-listed technology group Alviva has been granted regulatory approval to takeover competitor Tarsus in a R185 million deal.
The company today announced to shareholders: “Alviva is pleased to confirm that all the conditions precedent to the SPA [share purchase agreement] have now been fulfilled or waived, as the case may be, and that the acquisition will be implemented, effective 1 July 2021.”
Alviva, the ICT products and services provider, first announced in October that it was in discussions regarding the possible acquisition of Tarsus Technology Group.
At the time, due diligence had been completed, and subsequently, a deal with Tarsus was clinched the following month but it needed regulatory approval, which has now been granted.
Led by CEO Pierre Spies, Alviva is on record saying the Tarsus deal was motivated by its expansion plans of the current IT distribution businesses into the retail customer segment where it has limited exposure.
The desire to grow the cloud solutions business also necessitated the deal, as Tarsus’s cloud business is significantly larger than that of Alviva.
The company says growth plans into Africa also stimulated the takeover as Tarsus’s African business exceeds R670 million in revenue.
Tarsus is one of SA’s value-added technology distributors, representing global hardware, software and information security brands.
Established in 1985, Tarsus Group has two main operating subsidiaries: Tarsus Distribution, the company that owns the South African, Botswana and Namibian IT distribution operations; and Tarsus on Demand, which operates a cloud solutions business.
Excluded from the transaction is the GAAP point-of-sale software business, which will be distributed, prior to Alviva’s acquisition, to the current shareholders.
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